A planetary gear comprises a planet wheel carrier, a sun shaft, a gear ring, and planet wheels supported by the planet wheel carrier so that the planet wheels are meshing with the sun shaft and with the gear ring. The planet wheel carrier in its simple form comprises a first end-section for supporting first ends of the shafts of the planet wheels and a second end-section for supporting the second ends of the shafts of the planet wheels. In many cases, however, a planet wheel carrier of the kind described above can be mechanically too elastic, i.e. not sufficiently stiff, and thus the positions of the planet wheels with respect to the sun shaft and to the gear ring are not necessarily as desired especially during high load conditions. This may cause excessive wear of the teeth of the planet wheels, the teeth of the sun shaft, and the teeth of the gear ring.
In order to increase the mechanical stiffness, many planet wheel carriers comprise a support structure that is between the first and second end-sections in the axial direction of the planet wheels. An inconvenience related to the support structure is that it complicates the assembly and disassembly of the planet wheels of the planetary gear. Therefore, the support structure may complicate the maintenance of the planetary gear. Hence, there is often a trade-off between the mechanical stiffness of the planet wheel carrier and the complexity of the maintenance of the planetary gear.
Publication JP2007071273 discloses a planet wheel carrier comprising an end-plate that is non-destructively detachable from the support structure so as to facilitate the maintenance of the planetary gear.